(Found this blog in DRAFTS!!!….Ooops!)

I do not know who had the brilliant idea to get up at sparrow fart and head into Lerwick to stand in a square in the freezing cold to wave to a group of friends and family who would have been all cosied up in their homes in the evening. We did this. We parked our little yellow ray of sunshine in an incredibly convenient space for free (Wow!!!) and headed to the town square opposite the Tourist Office and danced around like dunces attracting attention of laughing locals. Yes, they knew there was a webcam there. And yes, we were obviously not the first tourists to make our presence known.

I have to say that we were a tiny bit gutted when we were recommended a morning coffee establishment and discovered it was spooned dry coffee and not a state-of-the-art espresso machine. I mean ….how precious are we?

We were directed to the right spot and the Noss Seabirds and Seals Boat Trip was to begin. It was cold. Sue reassured me. We have a catamaran. All is good in the world. I looked closely. There are no walls. We will be exposed. I held my tongue. I pulled down my Davy Crocket beanie thingy and crossed my fingers. (I hate being cold.) 

We set off. There were twelve on board. Brian our skipper, a sensible seventy-year-old and his young wife Marie a demanding (I hope) twenty years his junior went through the normal safety routines etc and at the end we were draped in not just our seven layers of clothing but a lifejacket, binoculars and headphone apparatus because it was going to be rough, loud and we could get wet!!! I was not completely comfortable at this stage. 

We sailed past the house where Jimmy Perez fictionally lived, then all sorts of other places that I really didn’t connect to but still found interesting because I find everything interesting even though I remember very little. It is OK when you have a partner with encyclopaedic memory you don’t have to bother but John was at home, and I really should have paid attention. 

It was an amazing experience. Noss is incredible. The birdlife is what it is all about and we even saw seals. It was an amazing experience. Brian and Marie were fabulous hosts, and I would recommend this tour in a heartbeat. 

A bit of a walk around Lerwick to make sure we got a good photos of Jimmy’s place and we came across Aunty and her nieces getting ready to take a dip. The water temperature was between five and eight degrees. Aunty swims every day. EVERY DAY?????- Yes -everyday. According to her sister the water temperature here in Shetland doesn’t vary too much. Seriously??? At least the nieces had some sense and dressed a little more appropriately!!!

Sue and I headed for a coffee. Coffee Culture…it had been recommended by a worker that we had run into before our international debut at the city centre webcam. We shared our table with Catherine and Stewart, cyclists, and adventurers extraordinaire. No, I do not get being out in the freezing cold to cycle all over Scotland. It is cold and it is hilly. And…they were not teenagers. Not old like me but still …not teenagers.

It was time to decide what we were having for dinner. We headed to Tesco. Decision- salmon and stuffed capsicum. Scalloway had a museum. We visited. We bought postcards. We needed to post them. Apparently, there was a post office just around the corner. We manoeuvred the car around the tourist bus and headed into town. The thing is that, really, who needs a post office these days? We drove to the end of the ‘town’ and realised we had missed it. We returned. It had to be here somewhere. This place is just a couple of hundred metres long. Finally…disguised as a very discrete office and tucked inside the pharmacy was the very small counter with the very small lady that was the post office- not the lady, well actually yes probably the lady! We completed our transactions and moved on.